Talks - To Bury Or Burn?

To Bury Or Burn?

To Bury Or Burn?

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
, 2000-09-18

A cyber cadet asks why some bury and others burn their dead. It often surprises people to learn that, as Gurudeva describes, the principle behind burial is the belief that those same bodies will rise up again, renewed, on the final judgement day, to once and for all go to heaven. Hindus, of course, cremate their bodies to free themselves from being bound to it, knowing that they will get another.

Unedited Transcript:

A question coming in from a cyber cadet wondering about burying the dead opposed to cremating like the Hindus do. What significance is there is burying the dead?

The Abrahamic religions bury their dead because they believe that the dead is going to raise up out of the grave at one time in history and that is the significant reason that they bury the dead. As far as I know Hindus cremate the body because they know that they're going to reincarnate into another body. Hindus discard the body like old clothing. But the other religions want to keep it as long as possible and they believe that they are going to use it again.